Of e-waste and ‘importers’

WHEN it comes to e-waste, we have been hearing one refrain for the longest time: container importers are misrepresenting their contents. Yet we do not hear of fraudulent importers being severely punished. So long as this leniency persists, expect the importers to continue to falsely declare the contents of the containers and get away with it. Most of them are not importers but members of global smuggling syndicates. We appreciate the government’s desire to ensure that Malaysia doesn’t become a dumping ground for developed nations’ e-waste. But desire must be followed by right actions. The first right action is to begin at home by making fraudulent importers pay heavily for their crime.…